Onward to Metal Mecca

If you don't know by now, I work the weekend shift here at the Comcast Data Center in West Chester, PA. The good news is this is the last weekend I'm working before going on vacation next week. Selfishly, I'm going to Worcester, MA with friends Storm, Mulhearn, Joe Quick, WB, Erik, Chops, and the Stecks to attend the 7th annual New England Metal and Hardcore Festival. Patrice is saintly for agreeing to me going away not one day or two days or even three days...but FOUR days for nothing more important than me headbanging for three days with my best friends. All the while, Patrice will be home caring for our adorable and dependent Bella on her own with no help from me. I am eternally grateful for her letting me go. I can justify it by thinking that I deserve a break, but don't we all? Patrice certainly does I can tell you that. But, do we ever get a chance to take that break? Because of her flexibility, my break goes into reality phase next weekend. What will her reward be? Maybe I'll seek out the funniest/best metal slogan t-shirt and try to retrieve it for her Capture the Flag-style. I can do better than that. How about a break for her then? Patrice, you're welcome to go away whenever you want. You sure as hell deserve it. As much as I'm looking forward to the fest (I've had it planned since last December), I'm not looking forward to the guilt that I might feel if I find out that Patrice had a rough go of life while I was away. Worse than that fear is the inevitable feeling of separation anxiety that will ensue the moment I leave our house. The only thing I love more than extreme music is family and friends, and leaving one for the other over the course of a weekend renders me powerless in the realm of being a family man. I'm not used to this since becoming a father. I will be transforming into Drunk Headbanger man who will have no influence over what happens at home, which is where the most important part of my life exists. At least it's only a weekend. I can't imagine what my brother Billy had to go through when he had to leave his kids with his divorced wife while he serves an indefinite tour in Kuwait. I guess the difference is that he didn't have a choice, and I have a choice. It's not like I'm going off to war or something, but then again, some people could see it that way if they witnessed hundreds of Kung Fu crazy kids opening up vicious pits at the sound of the first down-tuned power chord from Hellspawn War Hammers of the Nordic Wind.