My husband recently finished a marathon of extra hours. We’re talking 13 hour days, 5 days a week, followed by 3-5 hours on Saturday and Sunday. What does that translate to? Dinners alone, Golden Girls, and just when I’m finally beginning to doze off, Baci begins to talk out the window, a car door shuts and the doorknob shakes on the front door. With every ounce of energy I can muster, I stay awake for awhile with Alex as he finally has an opportunity to decompress from another long day. I ultimately fall asleep on the job, waking up to “Tina, go to bed.” But I tried my hardest, night after night, to give him just a little bit of home time.

Last Saturday was his first full day off work since his birthday in May. Smart decision or not, we took the opportunity to drive down to Veritas for their outdoor concert. As three-year old Wine Club members, we’ve neglected our free benefits of membership. Namely, the Starry Nights concert series. Virgins to the concert series, we arrived with two chairs and nothing else. Let me tell you a little bit about Starry Nights.

People bring everything from tables and chairs to picnic baskets and coolers to centerpieces and candlelabras. Setting up camp in a sea of thousands, they proudly display their elaborate cheese platters, their fancy-pants baskets, silver flatwear and proscutto wrapped goodness. As far as the eyes can see, the people watching is superb. Romantic date nights, intoxicated groups of close friends, little tikes dancing in front of the stage, and, of course, us. Completely and utterly in awe of what Starry Nights really is. It’s so much better.

We had a fabulous night. We drank a little too much wine with too little water, we made friends with a group of Lynchburg, 20-somethings who taught me a few new iPhone secrets, we watched the sunset and the crackling embers of a gigantic bon fire, enjoyed little kids without having to worry about them (this is a teacher’s dream) and ended the night in the quiet of the tasting room, slouched on the leather couch, waiting out the sea of people shuffling back to their cars. We reconnected over the little bit of r&r, the wealth of rich memories, and the magic that Veritas has always brought to our relationship. We were able to be us. No overworked, exhausted bodies sitting in front of the television, attempting to be us. We were finally, for once in our chaotic lives, us again.

And it was, sincerely, a starry night.

Welp, 8 months ago this view looked a lot different…

And here, too…

Amazing memories here with our friends and family… the location of our wedding reception. Walking into this room illicits the most incredible emotions for me.

Now that’s a lot of empty wine bottles…. don’t worry, we shared them with our newfound friends.

Closing up shop after a wild, long night.

We’ll be back, soon enough. We can’t seem to stay away. Until then, we’ll remember our recent starry night.

Wedding images courtesy of Jodi Miller Photography.

*Filed under Married Life and Social Life*

• Tags
• concert
• newlywed life
• starry nights
• veritas
• wine
• outings