my first red rocks concert!

for my birthday last year, jamie had given me tickets to see my favorite band of all time, the head and the heart, at red rocks amphitheatre. if you haven’t seen a show at red rocks, it is the experience of a lifetime – you’re up high in an amphitheatre carved into the rocks, with a view of the mountains/hills around it, plus downtown denver beyond the stage if it’s clear. although i had been to red rocks [it’s a cool place to even walk around], i had never seen anyone perform there, so this was a dream come true to see my very favorite band perform at such an epic venue. i had waited almost six months for my birthday present, but it was well worth the wait.

the show was absolutely AMAZING, but the funny thing [well, funny now. kinda…] is that jamie and i got into a big fight on this night, right before the show started. remember this post when i mentioned that jamie and i had fought a lot during my first six months in denver, and then suddenly we just stopped? well, this was the last “big” fight during that time, and i think it made us realize that we couldn’t continue in the direction we were going. so we made much more effort to avoid arguing about stupid things going forward. i can only think of one or two fights that we’ve had since then – eight months later – so we’re making progress. :)

anyway, jamie and i had both been able to get off work early, and he had showed up to my house with beer and pizza and my favorite spring fling cake, which was so sweet of him. we ate, put the beer in the back, and headed to red rocks. unfortunately, the USDA inspector [a bear of a woman, pardon me for saying so], had called me about an issue at work… of course, the one day i had to leave early. she wouldn’t stop talking to [yelling at] me, so i was on the phone for a good 35 minutes on the way to the concert, which irritated jamie and got me stressed out as well. [this is a small window into my first year of my job as QA manager at the plant, ha. pretty stressful the majority of the time! the second year has been a lot better so far.] even though we were able to put that behind us, it sort of set the tone for the night, as at some point later on, we got into an argument and just got really frustrated with each other. we watched the concert without saying much to each other [it was still sooooo good], and afterwards we were fighting and mad/upset. not the way we planned the night to go!

looking back, we realize how silly it was that we got so angry and made the mistake of talking about serious things when we were there to have fun, and we wish we hadn’t succumbed to that frustration and arguing, because sadly, it’s what we’ll always remember about this night. luckily we look at it as the last straw before our turning point, which was a positive thing, and hopefully we’ll get to see the head and the heart again someday at red rocks, sans fighting! we all live and learn, and jamie and i have always been transparent with other people about the times we fight… we’re not perfect and neither is our relationship, and we’re not afraid to tell people that. we tend to over-communicate to each other rather than avoid conflict. we typically face it head-on! BUT we’ve grown a lot from these types of situations and haven’t let them define us. and we have gotten better and better at resolving conflict swiftly before it overtakes our time spent together. we love each other so much and are committed to bettering ourselves and our relationship all the time.

and so, that was the story of my first red rocks concert, haha. i love the head and the heart so much, and i love that jamie does too. they are fantastic and the concert was completely epic, even despite the fighting! here are some pictures of us at beautiful red rocks before the drama, lol: