A fine time was had by all

Let's set the Wayback Machine for Sunday. I got together with my friend Kathleen and her husband to drink a bit too much and listen to big band music at a bar one town over.

It was a perfect outing for all involved. Here's why:

• Kathleen loves her husband very much, but he's a difficult guy. Fascinating, unique, and difficult. He never likes anything Kathleen gives him. He pretends to, and then returns it. (If she goes fun, he exchanges it for something practical. If she opts for practical, he'll return it for a movie or a CD. There's no malice involved; he just marches to his own drummer and it's impossible to discern the tune in his head sometimes.) Also, he doesn't really like going out with friends, which makes planning a bash for him hard. Since he is a huge Sinatra fan, big band music seemed like an event tailor-made for him. And, in case he tried to slither out of it at the last minute, Kathleen told him it was important he do it for ME because ....

• The band features my cousin. One I saw for my birthday last November, and not since. Which is a shame because he is a good guy and lives not that far from me. He's been sending me messages on Facebook, letting me know about gigs in my neighborhood. I would like to solidify ties to that side of the family. His mom is my dad's sister, my aunt/Godmother. Since I lost my uncle/Godfather (my mom's brother) shortly after we all got together for the first time in years, it seems like it was meant to be.

• Kathleen's been under quite a bit of stress lately, at work and in her personal life. The projections for her business beyond the third quarter are not good. And right now, both her dad and sister are ill. It did her a lot of good to get out and do something different, with someone who isn't a relative, since all her family wants to do these days (naturally enough) is go over the amazing bad luck that has befallen them.

We chatted and laughed and teased one another and my cousin visited with us between sets and was very funny in a wry, clever way. I was proud to say I was "with the band." So we got a lot of happy out of the $10/person cover charge.

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