Fated

I have a very lovely friend whom, last year, invited me to use her husband’s ticket to see The Decemberists. We had a great time. We went into Boston, we conquered mass transit, visited an odd museum, and paid a visit to an old friend of hers who fed us dinner and provided a much needed sugar boost in the form of cupcakes (I think I loved her at that moment). We did everything we set out to do that day except attend the concert, because due to a scheduling snafu (re: read the ticket wrong), the concert had gone on without us the night before. Oh, we laughed and laughed about how it wasn’t meant to be. Sure it sucked a bit, but in a funny way. And with most things, it got even funnier as time passed.

Now, this past August, I was presented with my very own Decemberists ticket by this same friend and we made many jokes about our past concert experience. It was going to be different this time though. This time we had it on our calendars, neither one of us was scheduled to be PMSing, all cars are in working order, and come hell or high water we were going to be at that concert with hundreds of people who were a good decade younger and savvier dressers than us. But it didn’t matter because. We. Were. Going. To. Be. There. This. Weekend.

This morning this email arrived in my inbox:

Adored Mailing List Recipients,

With much regret, The Decemberists have cancelled the remainder of “The Long and Short of It” tour.

One of our band members has been ill for a while but we thought all would be well in time for these tour dates. After a couple shows, though, it has become clear that the illness is much worse than we had initially realized. We need to return home so our friend can mend.
It saddens us to disappoint our fans. We hope everybody understands it is only because of an extreme situation that we had to cancel a tour we’ve all been excited about doing since the idea was originally hatched.
Our deepest apologies but at this time no plans are being made to reschedule the dates. Ticket holders should seek refunds at point of purchase.

Yours,
The Decemberists

Seriously. Guys. We get the point. You didn’t have to cancel your WHOLE TOUR just so you could avoid us. I am officially boycotting your music until February when it’s cold, steely, and grey (really, it’s the most appropriate atmosphere to listen to your music anyway). Until then, I’m going full throttle into Christmas music to lighten the sadness of my heart (unless of course you’ve put out some Christmas music, then I might reconsider).

Fa lalalala *sniff* la la *sniff* la *sniff, sniff* la.