Still Escaping Public Displays of Music

High on the long list of "No thanks, I'll pass" is music. Sad, I know, but not more sad than having a dead kid, so here I am. Yes, pretty much all music. Some musicals are okay. Some instrumental music is okay. Yeah, I think that's it. 

I thought I was done running out of shops and restaurants because of the music, but I've now done it twice in the last week, so apparently not. It's just a reminder that grief isn't linear. It ebbs and flows and always will for me. 

At the beginning of the week we had dinner with family on the patio at a local seafood place. It was a beautiful Florida evening. All was well and then this guy settles in with his guitar behind a microphone that I hadn't seen. Honestly I'm generally not a fan of live music at restaurants to begin with because it's always SO LOUD you can't have a conversation. But this guy was singing all the corny, sappy country hits. <Cue eye roll> When he started playing Garth Brooks' The Dance I looked at Ty and said, "Naw, I am not sitting here for this" and got up and went inside to the front of the restaurant until it was over. "I'm glad I didn't know the way it all would end, the way it all would go. My life is better left to chance. I could have missed the pain, but I'd have had to miss the dance" is not pleasant music for me to eat my fresh catch to. Thanks, I'll pass. Mercifully that ended the guy's set.

Tonight I had plans with a friend to try a new to me sushi place that has quite a cult following. We got there early because we had tickets for a behind the scenes museum tour that we needed to get to. When we walked in the Frozen soundtrack was playing LOUDLY and initially I assumed it was being played by the restaurant. I cannot adequately communicate how ridiculously loud it was in this small restaurant with maybe a dozen tables. We were one of two occupied tables in the restaurant and I realized the vocal stylings of Anna of Arendelle were coming from the other table. There was a toddler watching scenes from Frozen on a phone and the sound must have been on maximum. I put my head in my hands and sighed, hearing Anna sing about coronation day practically in my ear. Like pretty much every kid in 2014, Eli watched Frozen over and over and ran around the living room singing the songs. 

We ordered drinks, but it was so loud. I set my jaw to just grin and bear it, but it was impossible to ignore. It was difficult to have a conversation, much less a complete thought. My friend asked if I wanted to leave. Yes! So much yes! So we left a few bucks on the table for our waitress's time and got out of there. I have all the sympathy for appeasing toddlers in restaurants, but also perhaps a little awareness that toddlers aren't the only ones in the restaurant. There's about a 99% chance that phone could have been turned down about halfway and still kept the kid's attention. I'm sure I could have said something nicely, but it was easier to leave. 

It's been the better part of a year or more since music has driven me from an establishment. I thought I was done, but I guess not. I don't know if music will always be too much. Maybe. Maybe not. In the meantime, long live podcasts!