Weekend Intelligence: Distant Worlds

In this day and age, "love" is easy to find. There are countless avenues to meet people today, with new ways being created everyday. The media inundates us with images, videos and ideas of how it is and how it should be. From tips and tricks to advice and stories, plot devices and steamy love scenes: you can find it everywhere. And while they all claim to be unique, or be that sure bet to land the love of your life, they all have one thing in common: the formula.

1. Meet
2. Fall in love
3. Get married
4. Live happily ever after

It's that fourth step that's the kicker for me. Seems a bit boring, no? Luckily for me, my best friend thought so, too. And so, for five amazing and years, we've been enjoying the adventure-filled journey married life was always meant to be. It hasn't always been fun, and it hasn't always been pretty, but we wouldn't trade even our worst day together for a good day traveling alone. This past weekend, we celebrated our time together, and in a rather appropriate way - as an adventure. So, in typical weekend intelligence fashion, here are the highlights!

Houston - Distant Worlds Tour

We had wanted to do something special for this occasion. While we were looking around for options, we found that the Houston Symphony was to perform selected works from the Final Fantasy series as part of the Distant Worlds Tour. Rumor had it that Nobuo Uematsu, who composed and scored the vast majority of SE's music over the years, was going to be in attendance. And all this was going on the weekend before our anniversary! Too good to pass up.

Saturday came, and some good friends of ours agreed to watch Clara and Colin while we made the 3-hour drive to Houston. D scored us some nice hotel accommodations in downtown Houston: within walking distance of the theater district, food, shops and clubs. Not that we HAD to walk - the hotel had complimentary chauffeur service to anywhere we wanted to go. We decided to take in the sights on foot for the afternoon anyway, visiting the Houston Flying Saucer (they have a LOFT!) and doing some shopping before getting ready for the evening.

After a sushi dinner, we were dropped off at the concert hall. Now, D and I are used to attending performing arts events. What set this apart from most of the others was that we fit right in to the veritable sea of gamers and geeks. Some people attending were even in elaborate cosplay! In fact, we sat one row back and a few seats over from one of the best Kefka's I have ever seen.

It was an evening of beautiful music. The repertoire was a little FFVIII heavy, but all the selected pieces were gorgeously scored and performed. They even had a special treat for the audience: they were premiering the orchestral and choral arrangement for "Jenova" from FFVII. We were the first to hear it! Best of all, not only were the rumors about Nobuo attending true, but he was VERY involved with the audience. He gave a small introduction at the beginning of the show, held a half-hour question and answer session after the show, and even joined the choir to sing in "Jenova" for the show's finale! He seemed like a very down-to-earth person for someone with so much acclaim.

We rounded out the evening with a few drinks at the bar and some special celebrating back at the hotel room. The perfect ending to a magical night. -.^ It was hard to accept that our stay was over and leave the next morning, but what a night! Those are some memories that will last for years.

Good memories of but one episode in a long list in this grand adventure. Isn't that how it's supposed to be?