(Note - This is mostly a rant sessioin. Obviously I want to instill a lot more than just these two lessons in my kids.)

When you get married, MOVE OUT!
I've noticed a bit of a trend lately with some youngins getting married and then moving in with one of their parents instead of moving out on their own. Observe this passage in scripture:

Genesis 2:24 - For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

It doesn't get any more clear than that, folks. When you get married, you need to be on your own with your new spouse. I'm sorry if I offend someone out there, but that's how I feel.

The only exception I will make to this is if my kids have found a place to stay and the wedding date happens to be before they can move in. While that could be considered poor planning on their part, I'm not going to be crazy with this rule. But they don't need to get married with the intent of staying with me indefinitely. I'm sorry, but once they have decided to live with someone else, they've decided not to live with me.

The main lesson I'd want to teach here is that when they get married, they need to be ready to build their lives together on their own. And I don't think moving in with their parents and still having some dependence on them is a good way to do that. I'd love for my kids to live close to me when they get married. Just not with me.

If you aren't legally allowed to get married without my permission, WAIT!
Along the same lines as that last one - I've seen a couple of people get married before they are 18 and thus ask their parents to sign a paper saying they are allowed to do so. Again, I don't want to offend anyone, but that's just crazy to me.

I don't see any harm in waiting. Maybe that's because I started dating my future wife in high school and we didn't get married until we were 21. I can simply say that we were definitely not ready to get married before we were 18 even though it is obvious we would still be married now.

The main lesson I'd want to teach my kids with this one is that they need to make sure they are really ready to face the world on their own. And I don't think anyone can claim that at 17 years of age or younger in this day and age.

I think the vast majority of reasons that people use for honking their car horn constitutes being a crime. In my opnion, car horns could pretty much be removed and roads would be much safer than they are now.

Some examples:

- Honking your horn at the driver next to you while driving down the interstate to because you recognize them and want to give them a shout out. Um, have you ever thought that staring at them and causing them to stare at you means their are two people NOT STARING AT THE ROAD?? Not to mention that this behavior often causes windows to be rolled down and people to try to talk to each other. Oh, and the potential effect of startling the other drivers around you. So yeah, very dangerous.

- Honking your horn to get the person in front of you to move at a green light if they happened to be doing something like blinking when the light turned green. Give them a few seconds people!

- Honking your horn because someone doesn't drive the way you think they should. Okay, I know that cars were created so your awesome skills could be put on display, but give the rest of us a break. Sure, there are a ton of folks out there who probably should not have a license, but honking your horn at them is not going to make them realize that. And again, it probably scares the and everyone else who you are not directing your anger at.

I'm sure car horns had a purpose when cars were first invented, but I find them very unnecessary now. And I think if we can be ticketed for not wearing a seatbelt which places no one but ourselves in danger, then there should be tickets for honking your horn for stupid reasons which could definitely harm others.

Ok, I know I know. I was gonna blog more and then I stopped blogging....Again. Sorry. Ok, enough of that. Let's get on with the answer...

The year was 2001. Beverly (my wife) and I were in our early 20s. We still sorta followed the music that was popular at that time. Several bands we liked were going to be there. Creed was one of the headliners and we really liked them. Here is the lineup that year if you would like a little bit of nostalgia.

http://www.thebealestreetmusicfestival.com/2000-bealestreetmusicfestivallineup.htm

So us and another couple bought tickets. We were really excited. This was the first year where they had three days of music by a bunch of artists we actually like. Should be a lot of fun, right?

Wrong.

So the first night we get there and the main band we wanted to see was Creed. We thought we'd bring our lounge chairs and find a place to set up and just enjoy the scenery for a little while until an hour or so before Creed was supposed to take the stage. That didn't work out at all. For one, no chairs allowed. For two (is that even a term? oh well), it started raining really hard soon after we got there. And when I say hard I mean I think a tornado was close or something. We were watching Percy Sledge (of "When a Man Loves a Woman" fame - yeah, that time slot was pretty weak) and the bottom fell out. Completely miserable.

So after the rain stopped a bit, the ground was muddy. Not Woodstock muddy I guess, but still pretty darn muddy. And tons of people started flowing in the place. Before long, it was pretty much shoulder to shoulder traffic across the entire park.

Oh, and I haven't mentioned the alcohol. Now, I understand that those types of events are for partying and drinking. And even though we weren't really into that kind of thing, we knew most of the people there would be. What we did not expect was the huge crowd that basically made it impossible not to get stuff poured all over you. I think we had as much beer on us as the other folks had in them.

So anyway, we make our way over to the stage where Creed was going to be performing. The band performing at the time had just came on. Their name was Sevendust. I think I'll call them Satan's Minions or some such name like that though because they sounded more like something straight out of Lucifer's lair than anything I'd ever experienced before. Lots of yelling and screaming. Several fans in the crowd with bongs and who knows what else. Scared us to death (almost literally it felt like).

Good times.

So Satan gets off the stage and we wait for Creed to show up.

And wait...

And wait...

It's so long that one of our group decides to go back to the car and wait for us to be done. Yeah, he decided hanging out in a parking garage by himself would be more fun than waiting on and eventually watching one of the top bands of that day perform.

So Creed finally performs. Still a ton of people. Not as many crazy folks doing drugs in our area anyway, but it was really crowded and people were shoving and spilling beer all over us. Creed put on an ok show from what I recall and from what we were able to catch between watching them and trying not to get trampled on.

By the end of the night, we were completely exhausted. We went back the next couple days but didn't stay long either day really. It kept raining and the crowds were still crazy. But we had spent the money and there were a few bands we wanted to see so we braved the elements for those few bands and left ASAP each day.

That was the first and only time I've ever been to the Beale Street Music Festival. And the last time too. Never again. Never. Again.

When people tell us they are going and act excited we pretty much laugh in their face now. We are clearly not the type of people who that event is meant for. And that's fine by us.