Bucket List

Last weekend, I drove to North Carolina to see my favorite band, Alkaline Trio, with my friend Matt.

Ironically, the last concert I attended was in 2019, when the lead singer of this band was in another band, which I also saw in North Carolina:

Can you tell I was super excited to see a specific member of the band?

I can't describe how anxious I have been about this trip. I was packing my bag Saturday night and I was so close to just chickening out altogether because I didn't want to spend the night this far away from home.

Audra sits down and grabs me and says "Justin, this is your favorite band. You're going to see your all time favorite band with one of your best friends in the world. This is bucket list shit. You have to do this."

And she was right.

For the first time since Ripley was born, I watched someone else sing the song I use to sing him to sleep at night. I watched someone else singing the song we sang to him in the hospital. The songs Audra and I used to sing in the car when we were dating.

The entire crowd knew all the words and I'm pretty sure my voice is shot.

Bucket list shit.