Our weekend getaway date is brought to you by the letter G—good friends, Giordano’s and geeky guitarists! We were in Chicago for less than 24 hours, but it was an amazing weekend. I love road trips, honestly, for the uninterrupted conversations and connection. With a construction delay and marathon traffic, we had plenty of time for both. We arrived at our hotel (Intercontinental at a great deal via Hotwire.com) with barely enough time for a quick makeup touch-up before our planned dinner with an old friend.

I love that my husband was willing to give part of our weekend away to finally meet a longtime internet friend in person. It was, of course, not like meeting someone new at all—Kathryn and I talked and enjoyed one another like old girlfriends. Because we are. The husbands indulged us and I am so glad our schedules worked so we could connect while she was in town for the marathon. We had dinner at Giordano’s (after a quick stop for my gluten meds) and it was delish, as always!

We took a cab straight to the concert. This is the part I was a little concerned about. I wasn’t particularly interested in seeing Jonathan Coulton, even though it was technically the reason for our trip. The hubby is the fan boy there, but I’m nothing if not supportive. We had also heard he would be performing a Flood show in tribute to They Might Be Giants who were performing across town. I love TMBG so I figured all was not lost. Besides, it was at a bar. I’m on a quest to sample signature martinis across the country. Park West didn’t have one, but my server came up with something fabulous! I had four a couple throughout the show.

The concert began with the opening band, naturally. Paul and Storm kicked off the evening with—what else—Opening Band. I had never heard them before but was instantly in love. They are smart, funny and Storm is sexy as hell. Um, I mean, they are both very talented. What can I say? I love a hot geek! The Flood Show with P&S and Jonathan Coulton came next and was amazing. It was fascinating to watch, especially knowing they had never performed that set before and had only practiced it for the week.

Jonathan Coulton was about what I expected. I loved watching the hubby enjoy himself. In fact, I spent much of his set people watching. The drunkety drunk girl in front of us provided much entertainment. (You gotta love an evening when you can enjoy four a few drinks and still not be the drunk girl.) Super fan girl with the dance moves in the front section was also highly amusing. However, the best part of our experience came after the concert. We hung around, anticipating a meet ‘n greet.

Security tried to shoo everyone away and insisted there wouldn’t be. This seemed off to me, from what I had read about the bands, so we hung around the merchandise table. I wanted to get the newly released Jonathan Coulton scratch ‘n sniff stickers for our little fan girl at home. Brenia is obsessed with Re: Your Brains, and has many of his other songs memorized (you know, the age appropriate ones). Our persistence paid off as all three talented men arrived to hang out with their fans for a bit. Of course, for this scene I was cast as the drunk girl.

The hubby got to shake fans with an idol, chat for a few minutes and collect a picture for our growing celebrity photo wall. I got to drool over Paul and Storm, and may have accidentally told Storm he was going on my celebrity list. How secure does a marriage have to be for your hubby to allow you to stalk hit on another guy while you are on a date? Of course, everyone knows a celebrity doesn’t count. Still, I’d say that’s a testament to how far we have come in the last few months. I’m willing to sit through a concert I have no interest in hearing and he’s willing to watch me drool over celebs.

That’s true love, yo.