Usually my Thursday night is predictable. I give the kids a bath if they need one, I do snack time, and I get them into bed by 8 pm. I watch the evening line up which, for me, is Grey’s Anatomy and CSI. In between, I poke around on the Internet, I eat way too many potato chips, and I eventually tell myself I should go to bed.

This week I did something a little different. We pawned the kids off on George’s parents and we went out. Without the kids. Wait. That should read WITHOUT THE KIDS. Yee-haw!

There was a good reason for this momentous event. Montreal used to have a building called The Forum which was where our hockey team played and where most large concerts were held. Eventually they opened a bigger building, the Bell Center and the old place became The Pepsi Forum. It was turned into an entertainment center but no one really knew what to do with it and now they’re trying to make it somewhere to feature local talent since Montreal has gotten really bad about promoting local music. So George and our friend Perry, under the name of Gideon Vaudca, played there last night.

It was so much fun. They set it up on a laptop to play the instruments other than piano, which is what Perry plays, and the laptop also ran the background vocals while George sang. I’ve heard George play so many times that I can’t even guess a number. The first two years of our relationship was spent almost entirely in the studio where we worked or in bars where he played. However, they were always cover bands, which is fine and fun but it’s so much better when it’s original music. I’ve heard all the songs they did at home, but hearing them live over a P.A. on stage? Awesome.

The whole evening was great. We got there a couple of hours ahead of time and a group of us ate supper at Guido and Angelina’s where I had a really delicious Penne Romanoff. It has been so long since I ate out anywhere and it was so nice to do it with a group of good friends.

By the time we were done it was time to get the show started. I took eight thousand pictures, and sang along and enjoyed the songs. A friend that I’ve known online for awhile, Wendy, showed up for a little bit to check it out. It was fun to meet someone that I only know through text and hopefully my shy nature when meeting people for the first time didn’t make me seem like a lameass.

She left after the first set and when I came back from the washroom, I found out that my good friend Shauna had arrived as well. That was awesome because despite the fact that we’ve known each other since our college days and the fact that we live in the same damn city, we haven’t seen each other in a few years. How sad is that? We listened to the second set, chatted, and then we went to the bar and had a beer while chatting even more. We are totally setting up a playdate soon since all our kids are close in age, let me tell you.

We got home by about 12:30 or so. I was worried that Breanna might have been crying the entire time we were gone because she’s having a bit of a separation issue right now where she wants milk, but not milk in a cup or a bottle, only straight from Mama will do. She had been fussing when I called at 8:30, but mostly because she was tired. It turned out she had been passed out for a few hours by the time we got to the house and she was sound asleep all curled up in the crook of George’s dad’s arm. It was so cute and he even managed to get up and I dressed her in her sweater and socks without even waking her up. I guess I worried for nothing. We knew Hayley would be up all night if we woke her up to take her home (Breanna went back to sleep within about 45 minutes and at least she was quiet while she was awake) so we just left her sleeping there and she was pleasantly surprised to wake up this morning to discover she’d had a sleepover.

George and I were both a little tired this morning (especially George since he had been practicing every night with Perry for two weeks straight or something) but it was so completely worth it. It was great to hear George playing live again, something I truly miss since I can’t go see him very often, and it was a much needed break from being the mother so that I could go out and just be Sherry again, even for a few hours.

Pictures? But of course.

George and Perry on stage:

Proof that Shauna and I are not just moms but also people! Who go out! And drink beer in a bar! Call Meredith Viera!

More pictures in the >flickr set.

And a video of the song “Sometimes” up to the chorus. I would have filmed it all but I didn’t want to risk filling up my card.

For the record, Google video compressed the crap out of my video. It isn’t GREAT sound anyway because it’s just a regular camera, but it sounded better on my computer. I am looking for other options (YouTube seems to do the same thing). I wish I knew how to do flash video.

Anyway, it was fun and I need to try to that sort of thing more often. Even Hayley said today, “Mommy needs to go out and have a life sometimes.” Well said!