Marching Bands, Distant Relatives, and a Talking Bird

Well, guess what I did this weekend?

If you said, "watched 8 hours of a marching band competition," you are correct! And the scary part...I actually enjoyed it! For Darby's birthday (July 2), I got him tickets to the Drum Corps International (DCI) competition in San Antonio. So we saw 22 bands (just percussion, brass, and flags) made up of kids between the ages of 15-21. They practice all summer, and they are really, really good. They do a lot of cool visual stuff in their shows, so they're fun to watch. Mine and Darby's favorite band won, so we were happy. They were an all-guy corps, which I should be against, but I have to say, the all-guy corps were better. Mainly because every corps has flags, and the corps that have mixed guys-and-girls flags are scary. The guys have to wear really tight-fitting costumes and prance around. But the all-guy flag corps get to wear pretty manly costumes (as manly as flag costumes get) and do sharp-looking routines. I know I'm all about equality, but it is scary to see a guy wiggle his hips. Guys' bodies were just not made to move in certain ways.

Darby and I stayed with his great-aunt and uncle. They were so fun! They are 80 years old and have been married for 62 years. They argued constantly! If he said something happened three years ago, she said it was four. If she said we should take Highway 37, he said we should take Old Sulphur Springs Rd. But, right before she went to bed, he turned on the karaoke machine and sang "If Tomorrow Never Comes," by Garth Brooks to her. He has sung that song to her every night for two years! It was so sweet. And they were thrilled to have us stay with them. I got to sleep in the spare bedroom, but Darby had to sleep on the couch in the living room, and their bird woke him up with its squawking. Supposedly, the bird talks, but it was unintelligible to me. I couldn't tell the difference between, "I love you," and "Good morning," but evidently they could.

Anyway, it was a really fun weekend. It was the first time that Darby and I have taken an overnight trip together, just the two of us. We've been on church trips, and we've been on day trips to Schlitterbahn and Six Flags, but we've never planned a whole weekend trip together. Since we're both from Waco, we never stay in the same house overnight. I don't think we fought once. They say you shouldn't marry someone until you've traveled with them, so we can check that off our list.