I got tickets for Paul and me to take Mark and a friend to see ACDC. At the last minute I bailed and gave my ticket to Ian, our rock star tenant, because, dare I say this: I hate rock ‘n’ roll.  I am very embarrassed by this. I have always been self-conscious about my taste in music and have only recently been willing to admit it. When I was in highschool and my friends were listening to Meat Loaf and watching  Frampton Come Alive,  I was at home swooning over Johnny Mathis and humming along to Broadway show tunes. I had all of Barbra Streisand’s albums and I never missed the Sonny and Cher show. I know. Sad.  As embarrassing as my musical tastes may seem (and I promise you they are no reflection on my overall sense of class and taste) they are simply an indication of one of the many compromises and concessions a member of a large music loving family has to make.

The other night during dinner, Paul put in a CD of Celtic music and Sophia rolled her eyes and groaned. I felt her pain. It reminded me of my own dreadful childhood memories having to listen to Polish Polka music and worse, being forced to dance to it. (Yes, I can do the polka. It is similar to a waltz only more embarrassing.) I made this point to Sophia and reminded her of the time I let her play High School Musical 3 over and over again in the car on one of our all-girl road trips. (It turns out, getting each kid their own Ipod was a really great investment.)

Since I hardly ever foist my own musical tastes on others, (I save Barbra, Celine and Whitney for my Ipod or for when I am alone in the car), I didn’t think I should feel guilty for giving up my ACDC ticket. Mark was incredulous when I gave away the chance to see Angus Young live, especially since I had gone through so much trouble to score the tickets in the first place.   The morning the tickets went on sale, Mark and I set up all the computers in the house to Ticketmaster’s homepage, positioning a family member at each station so that as soon as the box office opened,  we could book the best seats possible. I whipped out my credit card and the purchase was sealed. I have never seem Mark so happy. He hugged me.

There is a part of me that regrets not going because I did not get to share in Mark’s excitement and see the  look on his  face when Angus took the stage, but I just knew that I would be miserable.  I explained this to Mark and told him that it was more important that someone like Ian, another diehard ACDC fan,  attend the concert because he would enjoy it so much more than me. He accepted my explanation, went to the concert and announced  it was the greatest night of his life. Paul went and claimed he couldn’t hear for days.